Evolución histórica del daño moral a daños punitivos en México

Abstract

The moral damage as we understand it today, finds its origins in roman law. However, an important evolution has taken place since then. The evolution of moral damage has been made both from the point of view of the meaning of this term and the consequences of it. In fact, Roman law spoke of injury as damage that would be caused to a free person or to their respective assets. The reparation of this damage was of pecuniary character only, since it was considered impossible to evaluate the value of the person as such. It is in the Siete Partidas that the first concrete definition of the term “moral damage” is given as “worsening, or impairment, or destruction that man receives in detriment in his things, because of another”. To this day it is the closest definition to the one we found in the civil code. With the appearance of the Aquilia Law, moral damage is beginning to be understood as a reparation to the pecuniary damages affected (the goods), and an amount to satisfy the moral damage suffered. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the civil codes of Mexican states were reformed, adding or subtracting provisions on civil liability, until the appearance of the 1928 code where the subject of moral damages was regulated as such. The last great reform that suffered this subject was in 2000, before the Civil Liability Law was Created for the Protection of the Right to Privacy, Honor and the Own Image for the Federal District, which to this day is the more specific regulation in matters of moral damage.